Shares in Sony have plunged after the world's largest consumer electronics maker shocked investors with earnings results far below its targets and warned of shrinking profits in the year ahead.
Several brokers cut their ratings on the stock, which was still untraded at the midday break with no buyers at 3,220 yen, down by the 500 yen daily permissible limit from Thursday's close of 3,720.
On the Instinet electronic trading platform, Sony was last traded down 16.7 per cent at 3,090, its lowest price in more than seven years.
The slide pulled Japan's Nikkei average down more than 2 per cent to its lowest in 20 years.
Matsushita Electric Industrial, maker of Panasonic goods and a Sony arch-rival, fell more than 4 per cent, also hitting a two-decade low.
After the Tokyo market closed on Thursday, Sony reported a consolidated net profit of 115.52 billion yen for the business year to March 31st, more than seven times the prior year's result but far short of its 180 billion yen target.
Sony's performance was particularly dismal in the January-March quarter, with a group net loss of 111 billion yen, its worst quarterly loss in more than eight years, as worries over war in Iraq depressed consumer interest in its colour TVs, Vaio PCs and other electronics.